Wednesday night news and notes

CLEMSON - Wednesday afternoon’s weather for the football practice on the fields behind Jervey wasn’t exactly the kind of chill that would drive football players indoors, but the good news is that Clemson’s indoor practice facility should be completed by the week of the South Carolina game, according to Clemson head coach Dabo SwinneyDabo SwinneyHead CoachView Full Profile.

Swinney said the practice facility is nearing completion.

“Man, it looks great. I think they’re grading it right now,” Swinney said. “I think the turf is maybe going to be here Monday. It’s coming along. I’m excited about it. They’ve told us they think we’re going to be in there the week of the South Carolina game, maybe just a hair earlier. That’s really exciting.”

The new facility is being built over one of the practice fields, and Swinney said the two current practice fields are in pretty rough shape.

“Our fields are completely torn up. Our fields are in terrible shape right now, because we’ve been limited to two fields. It’s really hard to manage,” Swinney said. “You talk about these athletes, big bodies. We’ve really had one field, because of that fence. We’ve had to do our competitive work on field three. It’s just a dirt pile out there. In the past, we’ve always had three fields, we could rotate. Usually, on Mondays, we would stay off of our grass fields and then a lot of times on Thursdays we would stay off the grass fields. That’s going to help us, just being able to keep a good surface to practice on.”

He said the players and coaches have noticed how hard the crews have been working to get the facility completed in time.

“They’ve been working their tails off,” he said. “They’ve been over there - they’re still over there [tonight] trying to get it finished. It looks great,” Swinney said. “The guys are excited about it. It’s been fun to watch it get built a little bit at a time. They’re starting to put the finishing touches on it now.”

*Swinney said that the Tigers had one of their best practices of the season on Tuesday.

*On Chad KellyChad KellyFr. Quarterback#11 6-2, 210Buffalo, NYView Full Profile: “He’s pretty special. To be honest with you, he competed pretty strong with all of them during fall camp. He held his own, literally just walking in here off the street. He’s got a chance to be really, really good, if he’ll stay focused, keep working, keep developing and stay hungry. Those are things that make him special. He is really smart and he studies. That’s one of the things I like when I go sit in on the quarterback meetings. He’s very attentive. He’s not playing, but he’s dialed in to what’s going on. He asks questions. That’s what you want, a guy that, even though he’s not playing, he’s still trying to improve himself every single week.”